The Victors
by iluvtheboywiththebread
Summary: This is what happens after "The Mockingjay" but pre epilogue. I change around the last chapter of the real book a bit to make it work. Hope you like it!
1. Prim

Chapter 1

I'm falling. Falling slowly and serenely through open space. I see projections of my former life, like holograms. A man with a bow and arrow, who is positioned a couple yards from an unsuspecting deer. Years later another male, this one just a boy, with a loaf of bread with an arrow stuck through it. A goat, standing awkwardly next to a beautiful little girl, whose grinning widely. Another young girl, this one lying in a bed of flowers, sleeping peacefully. And the boy whose company I craved most. Blonde and fair skinned. But I soon pass him, much against my will. And I'm still falling, and there seems to be no end. The images all soon fade, and I'm alone.

"Katniss." He whispers in my good ear. "Wake up." I blink, and look around the room. It's familiar, though I can't place. But I can place him. I nuzzle my way under his arm, and I feel safe. But reality hits me, and I shutter. "What is it?" Peeta asks. I sob.

"She's gone." I cry, he strokes my hair and hums in my ear. "Real or not real?"

He doesn't answer, but it doesn't matter since I know it. I shaking and tears are running down my face. The door opens slowly, and another face that I recognize enters.

"Oh!" Gale jumps in surprise at the sight of me and Peeta. Then he sees my face. "Oh… Katniss." He leans over to embrace me, and though I have not felt it in a long time, his heartbeat is familiar to me.

For the second time the door opens, and in walks a face, that looks even worse than mine. It's my mother, also sobbing. "Our little girl." She keeps saying. "I lost or little girl." She is not talking me… I think. It seems more likely that she's talking to my dad. And while I can not say that I know what it is like to lose a child. I'm certain that this is the pain. I remember the way it goes when you loose a loved one. First the numbness and realization. Then the pure, raw pain hits you.

And while then, as I knew it would, the picture paints itself in your head. I can plainly see that my mother is hurting, but it doesn't stop my outburst.

"Why did you let her come!" I scream at her. "She was just a little girl and you let her go to war!" My mother looks at me, pain and shock projected in her face.

"I- (sob) di-di (sob) nt (sob) know (sob)" She cries.

"Sure." I snarl. I don't know why I'm being so mean, but I can't help it. Then I start on Gale.

"Did you do it?" I scream at him, and he removes his arms from around me.

"What?" Gale splutters.

"Was it your bomb?" I say, bluntly.

"I-I don't know." He says in defeat.

My rain of terror is over. I break into a new round of harsh sobs. "Prim. Prim." I whisper.

"Katniss. Shhh." Peeta sings comfortingly. "Deep in meadow, under a pillow." I remember teaching him the song. We were in the Victors Village, and Prim was in the next room.

"Primmmmmm." The next few days are all the same. I lay in bed, and cry. I sleep with Peeta, but Gale comes around often. The red headed Avox girl brings me food but I don't eat much. I see my mother sometimes, and she seems to be in a similar condition.

**A/N Sorry if the story is depressing! It takes place right after The Mockingjay. (Pre- Epilogue)**


	2. Annie

Chapter 2: Annie

On third day, someone new entered. Her long hair was pulled back in a messy bun. Though she wasn't crying, her eyes were red and puffy. Occasionally she let out a small cry, but other then that we just stood there is silence. Then she spoke directly to me.

"He's gone." Annie said. "He's really gone."

My self pity was gone. I felt only Annie's pain. Only Annie's fears. And soon I was looking straight into Annie's eyes. Staring into her soul. It was strange and uncomfortable, but from these couple seconds I gather a much older persons understanding.

"Annie." I say slowly, like when I am calming a wounded animal. "Annie, what aren't you telling me?"

Peeta looks utterly confused. "What are you talking about?" He whispers to me.

"Annie?" I ask again. "Annie?"

"I'm…" Annie begins. "I-I'm. We'd just gotten married. I never got to tell him!" She sobs. Peeta's face floods with more confusion. "I'm pregnant." She finally says.

I don't know whether to congratulate her, or give my consolations.

"Oh." Peeta mutters. "That's…That's great Annie." He gets up and hugs her. The tips of her lips twitch, like she might smile, but she doesn't. Instead she bursts into tears again.

"Is it good? He's gone. He'll never know his own child! His child will never know his own father!"

"It is a good thing!" I say, trying to stay in good spirits. I once vowed, such a long time ago, that I would never have kids. That I would never risk that my child could be reaped. But it's a whole new world. In my mind I see an image of Gale (of all people) carrying a small child. He then hands it to a faceless woman. And I know I hate this woman. But then I see another baby, being carried by Peeta. And at a closer expectation I see myself in the background. Looking lovingly at Peeta and the child. Is this my future?

"I guess it could be good!" Annie cries, bringing me back to my harsh reality. As Annie leaves the room mumbling reassurances to herself, I lean over and kiss Peeta. He looks surprised but not unhappy. He returns it whole heartedly. Maybe I do want kids. Peeta's kids.

**A/N Thank you to Leia 96 for being my first reviewer for this story. **


	3. Where the Heart is

Chapter 3: Where the Heart is.

My choice was clear. And truthfully it always has been. Since I pulled out those berries, I haven't had a choice. And it's "funny" that what I once felt was my duty but not what I wanted is now what I want though no longer my duty. I want Peeta. And I'm immensely afraid of how this will effect my relationship with Gale.

"Katniss?" Peeta whispers to me, as I lay still in bed. "Katniss, when did you know I loved you?"

It's hard sometimes, with Peeta not remembering most things. Well not most things, all things involving me. Pretty much from the first reaping on.

"You mean when you told all of Panem that you loved me?" I laugh, but half- heartedly.

"No. I watched that video. I mean when did you really believe it."

This makes me think. "Hmm. I guess it was started to come to me when you told me that story about the first day of school. We were supposed to be making our romance up. But I could tell that you weren't." Then I look at his confused face. "Do you remember that?"

"I remember the first day of school, but not telling you about it."

"Well they wouldn't have footage of the first day of school." I smile. The hijacking ruined so much between us, yet managed to bring us closer together.

"When did you know you loved me?" Peeta asks thoughtfully.

"Truthfully, like a week ago. When you asked me, and expected an answer. You made me think about it." I smile weakly.

Out of no where Peeta mentions the topic we've been avoiding. "I want to do something for Annie."

"Make her a cake!" I say, excited that I had a good idea. "A big, beautiful cake. With baby colors and pretty flowers."

"Yeah, I think I will." He seems to really think about it, and he grins. "But Katniss, where am I going to find baking supplies?"

"I can go hunting, we'll made a squirrel cake." I joke.

"Yummmm." He smacks his lips.

I giggle. And I feel guilty. I'm having fun, and Prim's dead. It's a different feeling then what I felt when my dad died. When he died, some feelings were foggy since I was completely starving and I had to feed Prim. But I have nothing fogging my emotions now.

**A/N Thanks to MountainAir and ladaane for their detailed reviews. I would love if you made suggestions, or told me how you think the story should go. Keep reviewing!**


	4. The Games

Chapter 4: The Games

Peeta's in the kitchen when I come back from hunting. I can't help but laugh when I think of how the traditional roles have been switched. He greets me with a kiss, but then quickly continues to stir the beige colored batter.

After killing Coin and my trial, I was flown to District 12. Peeta came soon after. Right now we're on a trip to visit the Capitol.

"I'm going to make her the prettiest cake you've ever seen!" Peeta sounds excited and happy.

"It's going to be beautiful." I kiss him again.

I head towards my room in the training center. That's where Peeta and I have been staying. I was offered the room in Snow's old mansion, but I don't what to go back there. And even in the Training Center I stay only in the District 12 headquarters. I can't bear to go in the other rooms and think of who has stayed there.

The room is unchanged from what it was last two times I was here. The bed is large, and comfy. The shower is full of complicated buttons, but I don't bother to use them. I simply pull off my grimy hunting clothes and turn the shower on. I stand in the warm rain and let the filth of the Capitol woods run off me.

The woods in the Capitol aren't much. More like a small grouping of trees on the outskirts of town. It contains only a couple small animals, squirrels and a few wild turkey. Occasionally I find a deer.

Today I leave with only a wild turkey around my belt. But it will be sufficient. Gale is also visiting the Capitol on business, with his fancy District 2 job. My mother is taking a brake my her work in District 4 to be with me. I can tell she hates not being able to bury her grief in her work. As for Annie, I'm not actually sure where she's been staying. But in her current condition, I hope it's someplace safe.

When I leave the shower, I put on one of the Capitols big, puffy robes. I go back to the kitchen, where I now find a group of familiar faces. Plutarch, Annie, Peeta, Johanna and Haymitch. Suddenly I'm worried that I've underdressed for the occasion.

"Hello." I say slowly and cautiously.

"Gosh you'd think we were going to kill you." Johanna says without a glint of humor.

"We're just going to discuss the Games." Plutarch smiles weakly.

"The Games?" I ask. Peeta and Annie look at me, shamefully.

"The Capitol children are going to be thrown into an arena like we were. Sentenced to death for something they didn't do!" Peeta spits at me. Annie grasps her hands over her ears, but there is no Finnick to calm her.

Comprehension dawns on me. The Games! I'd agreed to them. Agreed for the Capitol to have to pay for what they did to me. For what they did to Prim. But they didn't do it, did they?

"I vote no." I speak rapidly, as though scared they may not hear. Plutarch looks angry, Peeta is smiling smugly, and Haymitch is laughing.

"Changed your mind, sweetheart?" He laughs.

"But we've just started the arena!" Plutarch says in exasperation.

"Well stop it!" I bark.

"Okay, Okay." Plutarch pulls out a small phone and barks a series of orders into it.

Annie slowly removes her hands from her ears. Peeta smiles at her comfortingly. It's the old Peeta, who has come back to me in the last few weeks. But every moment I'm prepared for when he slips away. Or at least I think

**A/N It's a bit of a filler, with a lot of explanation. Someone earlier reviewed this story saying that they want longer chapters. Would you rather have longer chapter less frequently or shorter chapters, but more frequently?**


	5. Remembrance and Apple Tart

Chapter 5: Remembrance and Apple Tart

Today they began the construction on the Hunger Games memorial. They will begin with the 75th and go down from there. The arenas are being torn down and the memorials to each dead tribute are being put right on them. Instead of vacation spots, they'll be grave yards.

"Peeta?" I say, turning the corner into the kitchen.

"Yes, sweetheart." He is baking, as he seems to do all too often. I think it really helps him.

"I want to go back to the arenas." I can't believe I'm saying it. All I try to do is forget the games, but I truly want to go. I want to lay flowers on some of the shrines.

Peeta looks horrified. "Go back there?"

"I want to go visit Mags, Chaff, Wiress, Cecilia , Rue and Thresh." He knows what I mean.

"Can't we visit their graves in the districts?" Peeta looks worried. He really doesn't want to go. I don't care.

"No, we have to go to the arenas. We have to pay them for everything they've done for us."

"Okay." He say, unsure. "Okay. Mags, Chaff, Wiress, Cecilia, Rue and Thresh. Who are they again? Well I think I know Rue, the little girl, right? And Mags. I know that name. She was old, and she died for me?"

"Yeah." Tears start to begin to form in my eyes. I hold them back. "Chaff, he was Haymitch's friend, from District 11. Wiress was Beetee's wife. She died for us. Cecilia was Effie's friend, she had a whole family before she went into the games again. And Thresh was Rue's district partner. He saved my life."

"Big, buff and deadly?" Peeta seems to remember Thresh after all.

"Yeah." I squeeze his hand. "So you'll come with me?"

"Always." He kisses me softly, a feeling I'd missed for so long. Gale, always one for timing, chose that moment to make his entrance.

He hardly notices that Peeta and I are holding hands. He either doesn't care or he just wants to ignore it. I flash back to not too long ago. I lay on a hard floor, listening to Gale and Peeta talk. I think it was the only time I'd ever heard them talk to each like human beings. But now they talk, when I'm around. Anyway, Gale said, "She'll chose the one she can't survive without." A strange choice of words, I'd thought then. I understand what he means, now. I can't survive without Peeta. But I'm sure I can live without Gale either.

"What are you making?" Gale yawns.

"Apple Tart." Peeta smiles.

"Apple Tart? Like the opens at the bakery, with the goat cheese?"

"Yeah, I haven't ever actually eaten on. Thought it was about time." Peeta looked at the goat cheese he was now whisking.

"Never, I figured you ate what you made." Gale looks genuinely interested. I laugh. It seemed so long ago when Peeta and I had had this same conversation. Peeta looks at me, questioningly. I know that this is yet another thing he can't remember about me.

"We had this same conversation, when we were in the Games. You told me that you only ever ate the apple tart if it went really stale." I explain to the two.

"Hmm." Peeta looks off into the distance.

"So you didn't eat like kings?" Gale asks.

Peeta grins slightly. "Hardly. But I'm grateful. We always had something to eat." Gale looks down at his feet.

"Yeah, well that was a luxury." He says to his fancy Capitol shoes.

"I know." Peeta reminds Gale. He doesn't want to be the spoiled town kid.

"Well, your luck has got to be worse then mine." Gale says. "The games twice, and you fell in love with her." He points jokingly at me. And though it is meant as just that; a joke, it hits me somewhere inside. Peeta was unluckily to fall in love with me. It hurt him.

We eat the Apple Tart in solemn silence.

**A/N Thanks for reading. Please review. Also on a side note, earlier in this story I mentioned that the Avox was bringing Katniss food. But with closer expectation of the 3****rd**** book, I realized that she died. Sorry for the mistake. **


	6. The Roof

Chapter 6: The Roof

I pack my bag in silence. It is an easy job since I brought very little to the Capitol. My fathers leather jacket, his boots, simple District 12 clothes. I figure that I'll live all my fancy Capitol clothes where they belong. I wouldn't wear them in the Districts anyway.

I go down the hallway into Peeta's room. And I realize that I have never actually been in here. It's almost identical to my room, but a bit more manly. He has a single bag on his bed, and he is looking out the window.

"I remember." Peeta says. He doesn't turn around.

"Remember what?" Then he turns around and runs right at me. Instead of running into me, he grabs my arm and pulls me. He has basically dragged me down the hall before I start to protest.

"What are you doing! We're leaving soon." I laugh. I see the entrance to the stairs that lead to the roof. I smile. Peeta begins to pull me again and up the stairs we go.

"Right here." He points to an area near the garden. "I wish I could freeze this moment, right here, right now. And live in it forever." I clap.

"You remember?"

"Always." He says for the second time that day. It's strange but it seems to be his new catch phrase.

"Come on." I start to him back. He wobbles a bit and follows me back down the stairs. I grab my bag from the doorway and Peeta reenters the hallway with his bag. Then we wait in the dining room until someone calls us on our commincuffs. The trip to our last arena is long, but it doesn't drag on.

"We're here now Mrs. Everdeen." The pilot turns around after we've landed. I am stationary, unable to move. Unable to even entertain the fact that I was going back to the very place I dreaded more than anything. It was here where Cinna was beaten to death. Here where people had risked their lives to save mine. Here was a place I couldn't escape.

Peeta, through I know he remembers little of the truth clearly, he can certainly remember the pain. I don't think anyone could.

I hold Peeta's hand tightly, and we walked a few yards. We were on the roof, and given the option to go down to either my launch room or Peeta's. I went straight for Peeta's as he had begun to head to mine.

"I can't." I whisper into his ear. He obviously felt the same about his own room, but he stopped and solemnly switched directions. His room was roughly the same as mine had been, clean, simple and mostly empty.

I gulped and something in my chest twisted. I had been wrong, the similarity to my room made it just as horrible to look at. "Peeta, where do we go?" He turned slowly, taking in the scene. Then he pointed to a white door and almost ran to it. Peeta flung open the door and stared at the hallway that split into about ten different new hallways.

"Which way?" He asked me.

"Like I know!" I laughed at his befuddled expression.

"Let's take this one." Peeta pointed down the longest hallway, which would have the most possibility. I thought that would make it harmless. I was wrong.

**A/N I hope you liked it. Sort of a filler chapter, I haven't written in a while**


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